Chinese E-Commerce Giant Alibaba Says It Will Go Public In the U.S.

Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company, partly ended a period of intense speculation today by announcing that it would go public in the United States.

“This will make us a more global company and enhance the company’s transparency, as well as allow the company to continue to pursue our long-term vision and ideals,” Alibaba said in a statement. “Should circumstances permit in the future, we will be constructive toward extending our public status in the China capital market in order to share our growth with the people of China.”

Alibaba engaged in high-profile exchanges with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last year about the possibility of listing there that focused on the nature of the company's shareholding structure. Today's statement didn’t say which U.S. exchange Alibaba would list on.

The coveted IPO is likely to be one of the world’s largest this year. Estimates of Alibaba’s valuation exceed $150 billion. The listing will likely have a big impact on the share prices of
Yahoo And
Softbank. Yahoo currently owns 24% of Alibaba and Softbank has 36%.

Chairman Jack Ma, an elfish former English teacher, is one of the best-known figures to emerge from China’s Internet boom thus far. He ranked No. 122 on the 2014 Forbes Billionaires List unveiled this month with wealth of $10 billion.

The announcement caps a flurry of capital market moves by Alibaba in the past several months to bolster its position vis-à-vis Chinese rivals Tencent and
Baidu. Just last week, Alibaba announced plans to invest $800 million for a controlling stake in a Hong Kong-listed media company, Chinavision Media Group. And Alibaba-backed Weibo.com last week announced plans to go public in the U.S.